The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Vijayawada News : Against odds, they come out with flying colours

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Thursday, Jun 23, 2011
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada

Against odds, they come out with flying colours

P. Sujatha Varma

The child labourers were rescued and educated by Navajeevan Bala Bhavan

Grit is the word:Students who secured above 500 marks in SSC exams in Vijayawada.

VIJAYAWADA: Pitted against the odds, they had the gruelling task of navigating through a rocky terrain.

It was their determination and the will to shine through adversity and most importantly, the ‘well-timed' assistance that came their way like the ‘manna from the heavens' that helped them move on.

Standing tall as ‘achievers' today, the youngsters A. Eswari, M. Sweety, Ch. Bhargav Narayana, B. Prashanth Babu, K. Sagar and Ch. Nagaraju worked as child labour in shops, shoe factory, or in the farm to supplement their parents' meagre income.

Spotted and picked up by volunteers of the city-based NGO Navajeevan Bala Bhavan, the children were rescued, educated and have been groomed into confident individuals. Proving a point that given a chance, a child can regain control of his life, all of them have scored a total of above 500 marks in their SSC exams.

Most of them have written polytechnic entrance exam and want to follow it up with engineering courses.

Eswari, a native of Kandrika, worked in a shoe company before she was taken under the protective wings of Navajeevan Bala Bhavan. Securing a total of 515 marks, she is now confident of passing through engineering course.

Sweety of Yanamalakuduru (501marks) dropped out of school after her father's demise and worked in a medical shop to help her ailing mother.

Disturbed by family scuffles, Sagar ran away from home at Kazipet and landed in the home run by the NGO when he was all of six years. He has secured 529 marks that have kindled hopes in him to be an engineer.

Ch. Nagaraju worked in fields and could not have imagined going to school.

A total of 533 marks has catapulted the boy's ambition and he awaits a seat in a local corporate college.

Prashant Babu, who got 531 marks, is also a budding engineer.

After his parents separated, the boy toiled hard in the farm for a paltry sum in his small attempt to help his mother.

Girls Padmaja and Lakshmi Durga are shining examples of perseverance.

After dropping out of school in eighth standard, they chose to return to the education fold by going to an open school for completion of SSC exams.

The common thread that binds all of them is their staying power.

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